For the majority of three quarters Friday night, it appeared Frenship would enter district play in two weeks with two straight losses.

Time and again, Palo Duro torched the Tigers with their speed at receiver, particularly Charleston White, who had four touchdown catches on deep routes, three of which went for more than 50 yards. That allowed the Dons to maintain control of the game for the almost three quarters.

Somewhere, somehow, the Tigers found just enough defense late and had their best offensive game of the season thanks to a big night from senior running back D’Maujeric Tucker. Together, it was just enough for Frenship to rally for a 45-41 victory on a cool, wet night at Peoples Bank Stadium.

“It was just a great team effort by the whole team,” Frenship coach Brad Davis said. “The fly route to (White), that hurt us I don’t know how many times. We finally got him doubles and stopped, and it was an overall great effort by the team, and I’m very proud of our kids.”

Tucker, rushed for 191 of his 238 yards and three of his four touchdowns in the second half. But it was the defense getting two key stops, one late in the third quarter and the other early in the fourth, that allowed the Tigers (4-1) to finally switch the games’ momentum to their side.

Until then, the Dons (3-1) had dominated the Tigers with deep passes. White caught touchdowns of 50, 79 and 30 yards in the first half and a 74-yarder on the Dons’ third play of the second half. In all, White finished with 251 of Palo Duro’s 312 passing yards as quarterback Malik Sims was 14 of 27 with a pair of interceptions.

“We knew they had some good athletes on the offensive side of the ball,” said senior safety Cade Davis, who had one of the two interceptions of Sims. “When they came out and scored on the first play, we knew that was going to happen all game and knew it would be a war. But we found the heart and the defense came together as a family and got it together.”

Trailing 35-32, the Tigers forced a Palo Duro punt early in the fourth, and Frenship took the lead for good on the ensuing drive on a 40-yard touchdown run by Tucker.

But it was Sims’ final intercepton — by Devon Gonzales at the Tigers 4-yard line — that allowed the Tigers to put the game away. Instead of Palo Duro taking a 42-38 lead with just under 7 minute left, the Tigers took the turnover and marched 96 yards in 12 plays and ate more than 61/2 minutes off the clock. Tucker sealed the win with his fourth touchdown on a 1-yard plunge with 16 seconds left to push the lead to 45-35.

That would prove crucial as White, who had a 107-yard kickoff return to start the game nullified by a penalty, scored on a 99-yard kickoff return as time expired, giving the game its final score.

“We felt in the second half they weren’t going to stop us because we felt our offensive line was playing that well,” Davis said, “and the way D’Maujeric ran the ball and Bryndan Arredondo blocked out of the back field. And we threw some timely passes. I thought (quarterback Trevor Lloyd) had a great game throwing the ball and running the offense and running clock on that last drive that didn’t leave them any time.”

It’s probably a good thing, because the Dons didn’t need much time to score at any point in the game.

Palo Duro’s first five touchdowns each came on drives that lasted less than a minute, four of which took less than 20 seconds. The Dons used the big play to not only seize momentum to begin the game, but to keep it throughout by answering Frenship scores with ones of their own.

Sims completed 10 of 19 passes in the first half for 281 yards and four touchdowns, all of which came as Dons receivers beat Tigers defenders deep in one-on-one matchups. Those four scores accounted for 235 of those yards, and White had three catches, all of which went for scores, for 156 yards.

But the first half was also very sloppy due to penalties. The teams combined for 17 first-half infractions for a total of 160 yards. Six of those 17 penalties were of the personal foul or unsportsmanlike conduct variety.

Frenship tried to keep pace, but struggled to do so. The Dons held Tucker to 47 yards on 16 carries, while Lloyd was an efficient 5 of 9 passing for 111 yards, 74 of which came on a late touchdown throw to Jared Mannon.

The Tigers drove 68 yards in 12 plays on their first drive of the second half to pull to within 28-24 on a 1-yard run by Lloyd. But three plays into the Dons’ next drive, White got loose for a 74-yard touchdown to push the lead back to 35-24, and it appeared the second half would go the way of the first.

But Frenship answered to pull to within 38-32 on a 3-yard Tucker run and two-point conversion, then got a stop on downs and forced a punt on Palo Duro’s next two possessions to give its offense a chance to take control, which it did in the fourth quarter.

“We came out in the second half and our offensive line just had a fire in their heart to push off the ball and give us everything they’ve got,” Davis said. “It showed the heart we have as a team to come out flat and let them get on top of us, the come out in the second half and play hard to get the win.”